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Sunday, 15 August 2010

You know, sit in your backyard making patties of mud to serve at your teddy bears' picnic?

Do you remember that delightful squelching in between your fingers? The wonderful feeling of being a mess of mud covering your clothes and face and in your hair?

I'd forgotten how much fun that was until I made truffles for the first time. Who would have known that making such an elegant dessert was the grown up equivalent of making mud pies!

A friend at work, who is a super talented baker and all round lovely gal, brought in some beautiful chocolates one Chocolate Friday...her raspberry chocolate truffles. They were incredible: dark velvety chocolate with tart bursts of raspberry. I couldn't stop thinking about them for months and so just before she left to go overseas I begged her for the recipe and she was more than happy to share.

The recipe is based on Tartelette's dark chocolate truffles only with frozen raspberries added - genius. The tart raspberries are perfect to cut through the creamy richness of the truffle. A match made in heaven.

The traditional truffle recipe is basically a mix of chocolate and cream but Tartlette's recipe uses yolks and butter instead of cream. The mixture is rich but not heavy at all and disappears in a blaze of chocolatey goodness in your mouth.

Now to the mud pies part. I don't have a melon baller, which is what everyone else uses to make their perfectly spherical truffles. But never fear, I found a video on youtube ages ago where a chocolatier with a shop in New York let their truffle mixture set, then cut them into little squares and rolled them in his hands to get the round shape.

Lacking the kitchen gadgetry, I decided to go the old fashioned way and muck in with my hands. Dude, I got chocolate EVERYWHERE. It covered my hands and went all over my clothes, my hair was streaked in it and definitely more than a little went on my face - a hazard from having pushing my glasses up with chocolatey fingers.

And I loved every minute of it.

Feeling the slippery slick of chocolate on your hands while you roll your wee truffle globes. Dropping them in bowl of cocoa and poof! In it goes in a cloud of cocoa dust. Using your chocolate smothered hands to coat the truffle in cocoa and in the process getting cocoa powder everywhere too. And then all over again. It was messy messy fun. Chocolate smelling and tasting mess. It was what you imagined the mud to taste like as a kid. Truly one of the most pleasurable ways to spend a Saturday afternoon - covered in chocolate and cocoa and making truffles for loved ones. One for the tray, one for me. One for the tray, two for me...

1. Measure out the raspberries while still frozen. Thaw the raspberries in a colander for around an hour then arrange on paper towels and blot to get as much moisture out as you can without mushing them up.

2. While they are defrosting, chop up the chocolate into bits and melt over a pot of simmering water (make sure the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl), stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon or silicon spatula.

3. Add butter a cube at a time and stir until the lumps have melted in. Add a pinch of salt and stir in. Add the egg yolks mix through, followed by the icing sugar and whisk until smooth.

4. Carefully mix in the raspberries until evenly incorporated.

5. Line a sponge roll tin with foil and plastic wrap and pour the truffle mixture in. Cool a little on the bench before refrigerating for around 1 hour. In the meantime, tip out some cocoa in a small bowl for dusting.

6. Now here's the fun part, cut into squares/rectangles and roll in to a ball roughly the size of a gobstopper with clean hands. You may want to put the rest of the mixture back into the fridge as you shape the first lot so it doesn't get too gooey on you.

7. Dunk each ball in the cocoa and roll to coat. Store in little paper candy cups (or not but they are pretty cute) in an airtight container in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Take out of the fridge around 5 minutes before serving or just eat them straight out of the fridge because you couldn't wait that long.

8. Otherwise you can freeze the truffles in an airtight container, lined with a couple of layers of foil (a lady in this forum whose been making truffles for ages freezes them for 6 months and says that you can't tell they've been frozen at all). Thaw in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.

Wow. i have made truffles for ever and never thought to actually put fruit in it. I always add flavouring like almond, coffee, mint etc... This is such a genius idea. Very nice and a good surprise for who ever is eating it... LOVELY!

Rosa: I think I'm obsessed with the raspberry chocolate combo too! Tammy of wee treats by tammy has a brilliant recipe for raspberry chocolate brownies which is divine :)

Peggy: There is something about getting messy in the kitchen that is so satisfying huh? Feel like you've done a good couple of hours work when you're covered in flour and bits of batter. Must be a indulging the inner messy kid.

Jourdie: I was really worried that putting the fruit in it will make the chocolate seize up but it worked perfectly! Mint sounds heavenly...what about amint and raspberry combo??? :)

Jo: I love Helen's blog. She is so so talented at writing and photography. Were they the espresso truffles you made? They look delish and so pretty! Love the pistachios :)

Making these for valentines day this year!Wondering one thing- when you mix in the raspberries should they, if they are large bits, still be intact after mixing, or is it alright if they get mushed and blended?